Germany - Food Safety: : Aldi stops selling eggs in Germany over food safety scare

Discount supermarket chain Aldi is withdrawing all eggs from sale at its more than 4,000 stores in Germany as a precaution, it said on Friday, as a scare over the possible contamination of eggs with insecticide spreads.

Traces of insecticide fipronil were found in eggs in Belgium and the Netherlands last month, which has led to the temporary shut-down of some poultry farms and to supermarkets halting the sale of Dutch eggs. 

Investigators suspect the chemical may have gotten into eggs through contaminated detergent against mites that is used to clean barns. 

The detergent was also supplied to farms in the northern German state of Lower Saxony, from where eggs are distributed across the country, Germany's food and agriculture ministry has said.

Aldi is the first major retailer to take all eggs, regardless of origin, off its shelves.

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